Moving a large file between two computers at home, or letting three office machines reach one printer, does not need a chat app or a USB stick. Windows has done this over the local network for years. The part that stops people is the first step: a network Windows 11 treats as public keeps discovery and sharing switched off, so the two computers never see each other. Work through this in order: make the machines visible, share a folder, share the printer, then handle the errors that come after.
Step 1: let the two computers see each other
Do this on every machine that takes part in the sharing:
- Open Settings > Network & internet > Advanced network settings > Advanced sharing settings.
- Under the profile you are actually connected to, the Private section, turn on Network discovery and File and printer sharing.
- Confirm both computers sit on the same router or the same Wi-Fi, so they are in one subnet.
- If the network is still Public, change it first: Settings > Network & internet, open Wi-Fi or Ethernet, click the connected network, and select Private network.
Skip this and nothing further works. On a public profile Windows deliberately hides the machine, so other devices cannot find it no matter how the shares are configured.
Set a password on the account used for sharing while you are here. Password-free sharing is convenient on a home network and also opens your folders to anything else joined to that Wi-Fi.
Write down two values from the host, since the other side needs them: the device name, on Settings > System > About, and the IP address, from ipconfig in Command Prompt on the IPv4 Address line. To survey the rest of that machine's hardware, How to Check Your PC's Specs, Model and Serial Number covers it.
Step 2: share a folder
- Right-click the folder, choose Properties, open the Sharing tab, click Advanced Share.
- Tick Share this folder, then press Permissions and give the user Read, or Read and Change if they should also delete and write files.
- Press OK. On the other computer, type
\\your-pc-nameor\\your-ip-addressinto the File Explorer address bar and the share appears.
For a quick one-off share with someone on the same network, the Share button on the same tab is faster than Advanced Share, at the cost of controlling less. Some machines do not show the Advanced Share button at all, and the simple Share path works there too.
The first connection brings up a sign-in prompt. Enter the username as hostname\username to avoid the host reading it as a local account, and use that account's sign-in password. To stop being asked every time, store the host's credentials in Credential Manager in the Control Panel.
Step 3: share a printer
The machine the printer is attached to, the host, needs to print a page normally first, with the driver installed, and needs to stay powered on.
- On the host: Control Panel > Devices and Printers, right-click the printer, choose Printer properties, open the Sharing tab, tick Share this printer, and give it a short share name.
- On the other computer: Devices and Printers > Add a printer, then click The printer that I want isn't listed, choose Select a shared printer by name, and type
\\host-name\printer-share-name. Browsing for it works as well. - Follow the driver prompt, then print a test page to confirm.
When the two machines are not on the same Windows version, the client often will not fetch a driver by itself and you point it at one manually. This comes up most when Windows 11 connects to a printer shared from a Windows 10 host.
Step 4: the errors people actually hit
| Symptom | What to check and change |
|---|---|
| The other computer does not appear | Network discovery is off, or the network is still Public. Switch it to Private, turn discovery on, close and reopen File Explorer on both sides. |
| 0x80070035, the network path was not found | Separate a name problem from a path problem by opening \\IP-address directly. If the IP works, name resolution is the issue: set TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper to Automatic, and allow File and Printer Sharing through the host's firewall. If the IP fails too, look at the sharing services on the host, its firewall, and whether sharing is only enabled on the public profile. |
| Sign-in failed or access denied | The account on the host has no password, or you were given Read only. Set a password, add Change in the share permissions, and clear any stale entry for that host from Credential Manager before reconnecting. |
Ping answers but \\IP will not open | The firewall is blocking. In Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security, allow the File and Printer Sharing rules and Echo Request (ICMPv4-In) on the Private profile. |
| The shared printer will not connect | The host went to sleep or shut down, a driver is missing, and occasionally driver isolation gets in the way. Set the host's power plan to never sleep and install the driver manually. |
One note about SMB 1.0. Plenty of guides tell you to tick SMB 1.0/CIFS in Turn Windows features on or off. That old protocol matters only when you are reaching a very old NAS or a machine running Windows 7 or earlier. Two current Windows PCs share over SMB 2 and SMB 3 already, so enabling SMB 1.0 will usually not clear a 0x80070035 and it leaves a deprecated, historically exploited protocol listening on your network. Turn it on for the old device you actually have, otherwise leave it alone.